Tight N.B.A. Scoring Race Comes Down to James and Durant

LeBron James, right, trails Kevin Durant in the N.B.A. scoring race but has sat out the last two games to rest for the playoffs.Credit
Left, Jae C. Hong/Associated Press; Elsa/Getty Images

In the waning days of a breakout season, Kevin Durant will be confronted with thorny decisions. Shoot or pass. Lead or defer. Attack or hang back. His mentor will not be there to guide him. But he knows exactly what he would say.

“Young fella,” George Gervin said, thinking out loud, “you better get it while you can.”

Translation: Shoot. Drive. Score. As much as possible. Do not hesitate. Do it now. Do it for posterity. Seize the N.B.A. scoring title, because it is there.

“This is history we’re talking about,” Gervin said.

Durant, the 21-year-old wunderkind for the Oklahoma City Thunder, is locked in a fantastically tight scoring race with LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers. After Friday’s games, they were separated by 0.3 points per game, with Durant averaging 30.01 to James’s 29.71.

It is one of the closest races in N.B.A. history. Fortunately for Durant, he has a direct line to a uniquely qualified expert.

In 1978, Gervin claimed the scoring title over David Thompson by 0.07 points per game — the smallest margin in league history. It came down to the final day, with Thompson scoring 73 points in the afternoon to take the lead, and Gervin firing back with 63 points that night to reclaim it.

Gervin, playing for the San Antonio Spurs, finished with a 27.22-point average. Thompson, of the Denver Nuggets, finished at 27.15.

The 57-year-old Gervin met Durant through the N.B.A.’s mentoring program, and they have become close. Whatever else Durant accomplishes, Gervin said, the scoring title should be on his list.

Photo

George Gervin won the scoring title in 1978 by scoring 63 points on the season’s final day.Credit
Associated Press

“I’m glad to be in the record books,” Gervin said. “And I would hope that Kevin Durant would have an opportunity to be there.”

The scoring title would be a nice start for Durant’s superstar résumé. He would be the youngest scoring champion, replacing Max Zaslofsky, who was 22 years 105 days old when he won the title in 1948.

James won his first and only scoring title in 2008, averaging 30 points at age 23.

Circumstances seem to favor Durant, or at least give him control of the race. The Cavaliers, having clinched the N.B.A.’s best record, are resting the banged-up James as much as possible. He was inactive for their last two games. He might not play in Cleveland’s final two games either, which could rob the scoring race of its drama.

Durant, who scored 35 points in a win over Phoenix on Friday, has three games left and no time to rest. Oklahoma City (49-30) is battling with Portland and San Antonio for sixth place in the Western Conference and a misstep could drop the Thunder to eighth, setting up a daunting first-round matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers.

So Durant is likely to keep pushing through the final buzzer next Wednesday.

“The pressure’s kind of like the playoffs,” said Durant, who will be making his postseason debut. “But it’s fun.”

There has not been a scoring race this close since 1999, when Allen Iverson (26.75 points) edged Shaquille O’Neal (26.31) by a margin of 0.44 points per game.

“It’s cool for the fans to get involved in it,” Durant said, “but as a player you can’t get worried about the scoring race.”

It has become impolitic for players to outwardly covet a scoring title. Scoring binges are equated with selfishness, and playing for personal glory makes one a target on talk shows and blogs. Perhaps that is why the scoring title goes unnoticed most years. Players hardly talk about it. The news media mostly ignores it.

In baseball, a sport defined by individual achievements, the batting title and home run races are a major topic. In basketball, the statistical races are an afterthought.

The N.B.A. has news conferences and flashy trophies for its most improved player and its sixth man of the year, but it sends unremarkable plaques to the scoring champion and eight other statistical leaders.

Yet it was not always this way.

“Being the N.B.A. scoring leader, especially back in the ’70s and ’80s when we played, it was a big deal,” Gervin said. “Personally, I wanted it. Yeah, I wanted it.”

As Gervin recalled it, he had held the lead for most of the 1977-78 season. Thompson made a late run and was within striking distance by the Nuggets’ final game, against the Detroit Pistons.

“I didn’t realize how close I was,” Thompson said. “The guys on the team wanted me to go out and give it a shot.”

So did Coach Larry Brown, who in a pregame meeting urged the Nuggets to get Thompson the ball. He scored an N.B.A.-record 32 points in the first quarter, made 20 of his first 21 shots and had 53 points by halftime.

Photo

The youngest scoring champion, Max Zaslofsky (5) was 22 years 105 days old when he won the title in 1948.Credit
Associated Press

The Pistons swarmed him in the second half, holding him to 20 points. But it was enough to push him just ahead of Gervin.

“I remember on the floor M. L. Carr said to me, ‘D. T., I think you got it,’ ” Thompson said. “But that was not to be the case.”

Hours later, the Spurs took the court against the New Orleans Jazz. Coach Doug Moe gathered his players and said, “We need to help Ice reclaim the title.” Gervin, known as Iceman, knew exactly how many points he needed: 58.

He missed several shots early but had 33 points in the second quarter, breaking the record Thompson had set earlier in the day. He had 53 points at halftime.

When Gervin reached 59 in the third quarter, Moe called him to bench and said, “Ice, I think you got him.” Gervin asked to return in order to score a few more points, “just in case they miscalculated.”

He checked out for good with 63 points, a feat he achieved in just 33 minutes. At the time, that was enough. Now, Gervin says, he wishes he had stayed in the game longer.

So Durant can maintain his virtuous tone and say the scoring title does not matter, that victories are more important, and no one will argue. No one, perhaps, except his mentor.

“Being an old man, talking to a young man, I would say get it while you can,” Gervin said, “because you may not have that opportunity to do it again.”

Gervin had not yet delivered that message directly.

“I’m going to text him, though,” he said.

A version of this article appears in print on April 10, 2010, on page D1 of the New York edition with the headline: For Two Stars, History Is Less Than a Point Away. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe